虚实之间:虚拟偶像人设塑造与粉丝情感维系以A-SOUL女团为例

Between Imagination and Reality:Virtual Idol Character Creation and Fan Emotion Maintenance—Taking A-SOUL Girls Group as an Example

“虚拟偶像”的发展从1.0时代过渡到3.0时代,逐渐突破二次元“圈地自萌”的状态,为主流媒体和大众所接受。数字技术赋能、粉丝参与打造了虚拟偶像的人设,以网络直播为主要营业方式的虚拟偶像与粉丝建立了情感并通过超真实的类人际互动长期维系,他们以更高的职业素养和道德修养不断圈粉。文章聚焦由字节跳动和乐华娱乐联合打造的虚拟偶像女团A-SOUL,通过参与式观察法和深度访谈法,探讨社交媒体时代虚拟偶像的人设塑造与粉丝的情感维系路径。研究发现,粉丝通过结成趣缘群体形成圈层的凝聚力,继而对偶像施加影响。粉丝群体不再局限于成为传统意义上的明星粉丝,转而变成产消者参与到虚拟偶像的人设构建过程中。粉丝与虚拟偶像的情感维系则有赖于偶像活动与团队的运营,并通过粉丝二创、Cosplay等情感劳动的形式来完成,但是背后不同力量的结构性矛盾使其未来的发展走向晦暗不明。

The development of"virtual idol"has transited from the era of 1.0 to the era of 3.0,gradually breaking through the state of"enclosure sprouting"in the anime,which has been accepted by the mainstream media and the public.Technology empowerment and fans'participation have created the artificial context of virtual idol.Virtual idol,whose main business mode is live broadcast on the Internet,has established feelings with fans and maintained long-term ties through surreal inter-personal interaction.They are constantly gaining popularity with higher professional ethics and moral cultivation.Focusing on the A-SOUL,a virtual idol group jointly created by ByteDance and Yuehua Entertainment,through participatory observation and in-depth interviews,an exploration was made on the path of virtual idol modeling and fans'emotional maintenance in the social media era.Research has found that fan groups form a cohesive circle by forming interest affinity groups,which in turn exert influence on idols.The fan community is no longer limited to becoming traditional celebrity fans,but instead becomes producers and consumers involved in the process of constructing virtual idols.The emotional maintenance between fans and virtual idols relies on idol activities and team operations,which is achieved through emotional labor such as fan second creation and cosplay.However,the structural contradictions of different forces behind them make their future development unclear.